SPEND YOUR SUMMER WITH PARI AND REACH YOUR NEXT FRONTIER
PARI’s summer STEM, space exploration, and astronomy camp programming is designed to inspire your young scientist’s curiosity, passion, and confidence to discover something extraordinary.
We give campers experiences that encourage deeper thinking and problem solving skills while finding opportunities for comradery, adventure, and fun in the incredible Pisgah Forest region.
Join us for a summer filled with inspirational learning, rewarding challenges, and fun!
Our Mission Control camps provide simulated missions that cover the many topics and skills necessary for a successful exploration of world beyond our own. We’ll use the same kinds of processes that NASA, SpaceX and others use in developing and conducting journeys into space.
These missions teach teamwork and STEM principles while giving campers fun and exciting experiences. The camp is an immersive journey amidst our historic campus which played a critical role in the first space race, and will help poise your camper for a role in the next.
Teams will research real technologies and techniques to meet a space science challenge. They’ll show how their solutions meet the mission goals and requirements and put their problem solving skills on display.
PARI’s research based camps are aimed at the camper who wants to experience what its like to be a researcher in astronomy, astrophysics, and astrobiology. Scientists and researchers with careers in space science lead this academically challenging curriculum that has been refined for nearly two decades.
Camps begin with an intense first few days of introductions to the instruments, science, and math needed to conduct research. They’ll be guided through choosing a research goal from the menu investigations we believe they can successfully conduct with radio and optical telescopes, and vast archives, provided by PARI and its partners.
The importance of both individual and team based work is emphasized while campers are guided through the research process. They’ll learn to share their progress and conclusions in the same ways expected in journals and at astronomical conferences.
These summer camps are academic in nature and present advanced topics in science, technology, engineering, and math. Though students do not need to be top performers to attend, camp academic content is designed to expose students to material of a higher and more difficult level than they may be accustomed.
Our signature and most academically intensive camp explores the universe through astronomy, physics, and astrobiology. Use real research-grade instruments and data to investigate objects like super-nova remnants and distant star clusters, or map the Milky Way. One small step as a space explorer, one giant step in launching your career in space.
This camp is designed for high school aged campers.
Campers will explore the origins of codes and ciphers and how they have evolved from written messages to complex digital encryption methods in use today. They will learn how to recreate these techniques themselves and crack the messages sent by their fellow cryptographers, all while reinforcing skills in math, language, and pattern recognition. We’ll also learn how wireless and radio technologies are used to send these messages from place to place on Earth, and into space, while keeping them safe and secure.
This camp is designed for campers entering grades 6-9.
Find out what to expect from us and what we expect from you while participating in a camp program. Includes guidelines, policies, packing list, and more.
If your camp takes place at PARI, here is where you'll find out where you'll stay and what you'll eat.
All camps have time for fun and play. From hiking, waterfalls, and camp fire nights to games, competitions, and relaxation, find out what goes on outside of the classrooms and labs.
We're proud to offer financial assistance to reduce the cost of camp for those who need it through grants, sponsors, and donations. Find out how to apply for a scholarship. Or, become a camp sponsor and help others.
Thank you to those who help make our camps possible!
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